Floating
by nutella4ever
Summary: Sawyer begins to help out more and people realise he is human after all. Kate and Sawyer get to spend some time together. One-shot. Fluff. Please R&R.


**Disclaimer:**** I do not own "Lost", nor do I won the song "Floating" by Jape that inspired this one-shot.**

**No real spoilers as far as I can tell. It isn't set anywhere in particular in the series, but if I had to choose, maybe the end of the second season? Anyway, it's completely safe for any time after 3x06. Just good fluffy fluff! :D**

**Enjoy!**

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Sawyer woke up in the morning in his own tent, his body telling him that it was still quite early though he was still half-wrapped in the fuzzy thermal blanket of sleep. The first thing he became aware of was Kate's warm body nestled in his arms, her head tucked underneath his chin and her hair tickling his bare chest. Groggily, his eyes blinked open and his gaze focused on the opposite wall of his tent. As he had suspected, it was still quite early; the light filtering in was still dim and cool. Shadows played across the wall, keeping rhythm with the movements of the trees on the edge of the beach. The only sounds to be heard were those of the wind, the waves and Kate's soft breathing.

Sawyer closed his sleepy eyes again, and tightened his arms around the lithe form resting against him. Kate responded, without waking up, by stirring in his hold, bumping her knee against his and sliding one small foot between his ankles. Sawyer sighed contentedly, his exhale causing one of Kate's ever-present loose tendrils of hair to flutter against the bridge of her nose. Much like a bunny, Kate's nose wriggled and wrinkled in irritation as the strands of hair tickled her. A small line appeared between her brows when the annoyance persisted, and her eyelashes fluttered momentarily before her eyes flickered open.

"Mornin' Freckles." Sawyer's voice was still thick with sleep as he dimpled down at her. Her own lips curved as she answered his smile with one of her own. The tent filled with the unique sound of shifting blankets, as Kate wriggled out of the Southerner's grip and clumsily began to pull her clothes on. She tottered as she stepped into her pants, not yet fully awake and Sawyer rose onto his elbows in a brief moment of alarm that she might fall. "Where are ya goin'?" he asked, suddenly sounding much more awake. Kate didn't answer for a moment as she pulled her shirt over her head, and then knelt by his side.

"Things to do," she replied simply, pressing a quick kiss to Sawyer's lips before rising to her feet. She was gone before he could draw his next breath. He sighed and face-planted onto his pillow, but soon rose reluctantly and started yanking his own clothes on. He hated mornings, he'd always been more of a nocturnal being. A creature of shadows. The mornings here were too… bright.

Still buttoning his shirt, Sawyer staggered outside. Kate was nowhere to be seen. Sighing, he ran his hand carelessly through his hair. Freckles had been right, he mused; it was time for another haircut. Casting a glance up and down the sand, Sawyer didn't see anyone worth annoying and decided to grab some breakfast instead. He was just shaking a heap of Dharma issued cereal into one of those God-awful metal bowls when the sound of familiar voices made him look up. It was Kate with none other than Saint Jack. Of course. Sawyer scowled into his bowl, suddenly not feeling so hungry anymore.

"We need some more firewood too," the Doc was saying. "Of course, it's Sawyer's job really, but he hasn't been much use at all lately. I hate to ask you but…"

"I don't mind," Kate answered. "I actually kinda like it. It clears my head." Sawyer could hear the smile in her voice. Damn Doc.

Both Jack and Kate stopped short and looked surprised when Sawyer materialised in front of them, twirling his spoon in his fingers and a lopsided smirk on his face. "Now, now Doc, a true gentleman wouldn't make a lady do all the dirty work."

Jack raised an eyebrow, looking thoroughly unamused. "I think we've already established that you're _not_ a gentleman Sawyer. I'll see you later, Kate." Then with a smile directed only at her, Jack headed off towards the caves. Sawyer turned back towards the woman in front of him, only to find her looking at him quizzically, a hint of a smile on her lips. "You're up early," was all she had to say.

"Well the sun is up ain't it, sweet cheeks? Early bird and all that." Kate's smile turned into a grin. "What are you hoping to catch, Sawyer?" she teased, her eyes slightly crinkled at the corners. _If only you knew, _Sawyer thought wryly.

"How 'bout I come with you to get that firewood?" he evaded. Kate looked sceptical. "You're going to… help me?" she sounded incredulous, laced with a good dose of suspicion. Sawyer's dimples grew deeper. "I never said that. Maybe I just want to see you swing that axe around, gettin' all hot and sweaty. So how 'bout it, Freckles?"

Kate rolled her eyes, and brushed past him. "You're disgusting," she called over her shoulder. However, her voice held no venom and her voice betrayed the twinkle of humour in her eye. Sawyer grinned and set off after her.

The height of the midday sun found Kate and Sawyer standing beside a hefty pile of firewood, chugging from a shared bottle of water. They were both hot and sweaty, as Kate threatened to aim her axe at a certain part of Sawyer's person if he refused to do his share of the work. They took it in turns chopping and stacking, and they now had enough wood to last almost a week.

Sawyer plonked himself down on a log and watched as Kate raised the bottle to her lips. His eyes followed the drip of water that escaped from the corner of her mouth and trickled down the side of her neck, tracing her collarbone and meandering downwards until it soaked into the neckline of her purple tank top. His eyes grew hungry. Kate appeared not to notice as she withdrew the drink from her lips, wiped her mouth and twisted the cap back onto the bottle. She tossed it away to rest in the shade underneath one of the trees around them that remained standing. She had her back to Sawyer as he rose from his seat and approached her stealthily, yet just as he reached for her hips she moved away out of reach. Sawyer's eyes narrowed and he chuckled to himself, sure that she had done it on purpose. He hadn't made a sound as he moved towards her, but she'd still known. She really was something.

He stared at her for a moment longer, taking in how she tucked some curls behind her ear only for them to tumble forward seconds later. It was reasonably shady in this clearing, yet the sunlight still touched her face making her skin glow softly, her freckles appear golden, and giving her hair the slightest tint of red. Right before Kate turned to look at him, Sawyer turned quickly away, not wanting her to see the way he was looking at her. Bending down to grab the axe again gave him all the time he needed to clear his expression and when he faced her a moment later, his cocky grin was back in place.

The looks of surprise directed at Sawyer hours later as he and Kate returned to the beach were not lost on him. Kate had fetched their lunch, so she'd pretty much been the only person he'd seen all day, apart from Doctor Giggles. He met the stares with a fierce scowl and grabbed Kate's elbow to get her attention. "What the hell are they all starin' at?" he hissed. His brow furrowed in confusion when Kate laughed and sauntered off in the direction of the kitchen without answering him.

"Hey man," he heard someone behind him say. It was the Hobbit. "Where have you been all day, mate? When I didn't see you lounging in your chair reading for the whole afternoon, I thought something terrible had happened to you. You didn't call, you didn't write…! Thought maybe you'd eloped with Locke or something, haven't seen him all day either." Charlie grinned, and the cute Aussie chick a few feet behind him, cradling the baby, stifled a snort.

Sawyer was about to retaliate with a snappy remark when he heard Kate call his name. Glad for the distraction, Sawyer headed towards her without excusing himself from Charlie. He decided to ignore the comment coming from behind him that contained the word "whipped." He wasn't _whipped; _he just… couldn't resist her.

Kate looked up quickly from the food she was chopping and gave him a brief smile as he approached, before concentrating once again on the task at hand. She nodded her head, without looking up, towards a plate lying next to her that contained some fruit, what appeared to be a granola bar, and some bread with something Sawyer guessed to be cheese.

"Is that cheese, Freckles? You got a cow you're not tellin' anyone about? Maybe you're keepin' it with that big ass black horse of yours? Black Beauty got a new friend?" Sawyer teased. Kate rolled her eyes, though a she looked like she was fighting to restrain a smile. "It's Dharma, just like almost everything else we eat. It's been treated so it should be okay, and cheese is good for calcium."

"It's for Sun," she explained, in response to Sawyer's raised eyebrow. "She's not feeling very well and I offered to fix her dinner. Could you bring it to her?" Sawyer shrugged and grabbed the plate, heading off through the lengthening shadows towards the Koreans' humble abode. As knocking was impossible, Sawyer simply made sure to rustle the tarp door a good bit to make whoever was inside aware of his presence.

"Hey, uh… Sun?" he called, feeling a bit stupid, like a waiter who had taken a hell of a wrong turn and ended up on spit of land. He ducked inside at her reply and found her lying on her side propped up on one elbow, smiling at him. She reached out a slender hand to take the plate from him, her smile growing wider and lighting her brown eyes. "Thank you, Sawyer" she said in her exotic accent.

Sawyer stuffed his hand into the pockets of his jeans and spoke slightly awkwardly. "Thank Freckles, not me. Especially for that dodgy lookin' cheese. She thought it might be good, y'know… for you."

"Make sure to thank Kate for me too, of course," the petite woman replied, now sitting up and still grinning, her blankets pooled in her lap.

Sawyer simply shrugged and turned away, feeling kind of uncomfortable all of a sudden. He soon forgot it though as he returned down the beach and saw Kate coming towards him, holding a plate in each hand. "How about that dinner date I owe you?" she grinned. Without a thought, he smiled back. "Well damn Freckles, you sure know how to make a man wait don't cha?" he joked.

A short time later, the pair were sitting in the sand outside Sawyer's tent, meal eaten, staring out at the waves. Sawyer glanced sideways at his companion out of the corner of his eye. She had that glazed look in her eyes that meant that she was miles away in her own little world, not really seeing anything that was in front of her. So it surprised him when she suddenly spoke. "Have you ever noticed how many stars there are here?"

Sawyer glanced at the sky, which was indeed littered with glittering pinpricks of light, then looked back her, unsure if it was a rhetorical question or not. "There's always the same amount of stars in the sky sweet cheeks, most of the time you just can't see 'em clearly."

She nodded slowly. "There are a lot of things you can see more clearly here, that would be difficult to see back in the real world." Sawyer frowned, getting the sense that she wasn't simply talking about constellations anymore. She continued talking before he could open his mouth. "There's nothing like the stars to make you realise how insignificant you really are. We're all so tiny in the grand scheme of things." Her eyes flickered in his direction, but seeing him staring intently at her, she glanced quickly away again.

Sawyer continued to stare at her profile. She thought she was insignificant? Much as he hated to admit it, she was important on this island, almost as important as Jack. Alright, she wasn't a saint, but who was? In the grand scheme of things yeah, maybe every single person in this place was tiny and unimportant. But in his world? She was significant, dammit.

"Do you believe in heaven?" Sawyer surprised himself by asking. Kate slowly raised her eyes to his, and for a moment he could see the stars reflected in them. "Not for me," she replied. "I just hope that I'm wrong. Even though I don't deserve to." She turned back to the waves crashing against the shore, drawing her knees up to her chest and loosely wrapping her arms around them.

"Everyone deserves to hope, Freckles," he contradicted, his voice husky. Her expression when she twisted to look at him, hosted a cocktail of emotion. Sawyer saw sadness, longing, guilt, fear and if not hope, then at least the _desire _to hope. The soft light of the moon washed across her features, caressing her skin like Sawyer wanted to. He settled for scooting closer to her and slinging his arm around her shoulders. The sudden warmth of his arm made Kate shiver, and she slowly uncurled her arms from around her legs and leaned settled some of her weight against Sawyer's chest. His arm dropped to her waist and tightened, and his chin came to rest on the top of her head.

The people further up on the beach that happened to spot the couple, simply smiled and continued what they were doing. Those two could dance around each other all they wanted, and it wouldn't change anything. They were two matching puzzle pieces.

Meanwhile, Kate and Sawyer simply sat together; sharing the comfortable silence and each other's warmth. Sawyer's breath on top of Kate's head, brushing her scalp, made her shiver slightly and move her head away. He looked questioningly at her, just a hint of insecurity visible in his eyes, which she hurried to quell with a small smile. His eyes cleared, but promptly filled with something else, something hotter. He leaned closer, slowly, and the tips of their noses brushed together lightly. The first touch of Sawyer's lips felt as it always did, electric. The kiss was soft and gentle, yet scorching, the warmth of their lips contrasting with the chill ocean breeze wafting across their faces, cooling their cheeks. One of Kate's hands crept upwards, over the planes of Sawyer's chest, sliding over the cotton of his shirt until she reached his face. His stubble scratched lightly across the pads of her fingers as she caressed his jaw.

For once, there was no urgency to their embrace but nonetheless they were both still reluctant to pull away. They remained wrapped up together, staring out over the waves towards a world neither of them missed very much anymore, and sharing kisses until it the breeze became truly cold. Then by unspoken agreement they retired, hand in hand into Sawyer's tent. Sleep soon claimed them as they lay side by side in his makeshift bed, cuddled up like spoons in a drawer. There was much in the world that neither of them understood, but somehow when they were entwined like this, everything made sense.

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**Review? x**


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